


Betrayal is Bad for the Health

by nerdguy3000



Series: Leo and Alba [6]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Adorable FitzSimmons (Agents of SHIELD), Betrayal, Episode Tag: s02e15 One Door Closes, Gen, Leo Fitz-centric, Seizures, Service Dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25488904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdguy3000/pseuds/nerdguy3000
Summary: The ‘Real’ SHIELD takeover leaves Fitz vulnerable without Alba
Series: Leo and Alba [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1834102
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Betrayal is Bad for the Health

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know anything about seizures or service dogs apart from the research I’ve done online. I’m sorry if this is inaccurate

Fitz had just been walking through the halls of the Playground when the power was cut, immediately fear clenched him and he put a hand down to feel for Alba. She was by his side, attached using the over-shoulder harness. It calmed him slightly knowing he wasn’t totally alone. He knew roughly in the base where he was and started heading towards the kitchen. It was where he was most likely to find other people and if not the lab was next door to it.

“Fitz? That you?” His head snapped to the side as he heard May call out to him.

“Yeah, me and Alba are here. What happened?”

“Bobbi, she has Coulson’s toolbox and we think she was working with Mack. Let’s go find Coulson. You okay?”

Fitz just nodded into the darkness but it was enough for May to understand. Betrayed again by people he trusted, the last time had left him with brain damage so she could understand why he was having a tough time. She started walking, hearing Fitz and Alba follow until she rounded a corner and was confronted by Coulson aiming his ICER into the darkness.

“It’s us. Found Fitz and Alba.”

“Talk to me.” 

“It’s Bobbi. She set off some kind of EMP. She’s gone.”

“Mack, too.” That one hurt Fitz, he was beginning to think of Mack as a brother, like he had Ward. And it was ending the same way, betrayed and tossed aside.

“He embedded a scanner into little Lola’s engine. It was programmed to find anything with Vibranium.” 

“That’s how Bobbi knew where to look. She has Fury’s toolbox.”

Coulson looked behind him at the agents waiting for his orders, “go find her.”

“We can’t let them escape.” They had too much knowledge of the base, they would destroy the last place that Fitz actually felt safe.

“We won’t.”

“We’ll make our way to the Server Room and initiate manual lockdown,” Fitz announced gesturing to himself and Alba before walking off. This was too much, more betrayal, more pain, he just hoped they didn’t hurt anyone else he cared about.

* * *

Fitz let Alba off her lead as they arrived at the server room. It was a tight fit between the server banks and Fitz knew it would be easier if she could move more freely instead of being stuck to his side. She still followed behind him just there was room to turn now.

He picked up a kit from the entrances and headed to the server he wouldn’t need to start the lockdown Alba following closely behind him. He knelt down, putting the box on the floor and opening it. He pulled out the yellow cable and put it into one of the ports before connecting it to the tablet. He felt Alba lean against his leg, and he forced himself to take a breath, it was gonna be okay.

He looked at the tablet and began to flip the switches he would need to use to manually lock down the base. When that didn’t work he tried pulling out some computer chips. That still didn’t start the lockdown, he looked around confused before heading over to a server drawer, he opened it up and saw something unfamiliar plugged in.

“What the hell is that?” He said softly to himself, it looked like a standard USB but it was obviously what was stopping the lockdown. He moved to unplug it.

“Fitz, don’t.”

Fitz had hoped he’d be able to avoid this confrontation, hoped that someone else would deal with Mack, that he wouldn’t have to look another traitor in the eyes.

“Mack,” Fitz said deftly, pushing the drawer back in. The man in question started to walk towards Fitz, who put his hand down to push Alba behind him as he turned slightly to look at Mack. He gave the hand signal for ’get help’ and Alba scampered off to the door. Mack didn’t move to stop her and suddenly Fitz felt alone and vulnerable.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, Buddy.” But Fitz had heard that before. He was still suffering the consequences of trusting someone. Mack kept advancing on him and Fitz stood frozen in fear, this man was twice the size of him and he would be powerless against him. “I’d never hurt you. You know that. I just need you to trust me right now please.”

Trust was the last thing Fitz was going to do. He had decided after being dropped in the ocean that he would never blindly trust. He would look analytical at all the evidence and then decide whether to trust that person, Mack could not be trusted right now. A hissing sound could be heard and Mack looked away giving Fitz the opportunity to grab a torch from the toolbox. He knew he couldn’t win against Mack but he wasn’t going down without a fight this time.

“Don’t-“ the words got caught in his mouth, the fear rising in him.

“I need you to get away from that wall right now.” Fitz was not going to listen to a word out of Mack’s mouth. He wanted to run but knew Mack was faster.

“Stay back. Stay back!”

“Fitz, you don’t understand.”

A low rumbling joined the hissing noise and Fitz checked over his shoulder, hearing it grow louder behind him.

“Fitz, Fitz!” He turned around to see Mack running at him and he was too afraid to move. “Fitz!”

Mack grabbed Fitz and covered the smaller man's body with his, then a loud explosion was heard and it knocked Fitz and Mack to the ground. Fitz head collided hard with the floor and he was knocked unconscious.

* * *

The first thing Fitz became aware of was noise, people walking around him, too many people talking for him to understand, then one voice clearly cut through the haze, “Fitz?”

Slowly Fitz opened his eyes, the first sight that greeted him was Jemma. He realised he had been propped up against a table in the lab, Jemma sat on the floor, a little in front of him, checking him over for injuries. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore, but I guess that’s what happens when someone blows a hole in the base. I’ve got a headache but other than that nothing too concerning. Where’s Alba?”

“I don’t know, I was lying here when I woke up, the last thing I remember was her coming into the kitchen. She’ll be okay, we’ll get her back to your side soon.” Jemma said, moving to sit next to Fitz, leaning against the table. They sat so close they were practically touching. Jemma placed a hand over Fitz's hands, squeezing gently. It had been so long since they had supported each other like this and Fitz laid his hand over Jemma’s. They were a united front again, and together they were unstoppable.

Hearing the sound of heels walk towards them, Fitzsimmons looked up to see Agent Weaver walk towards them. Gently Jemma retracted her hand from his grasp.

“Agent Weaver,” Fitz greeted, slightly confused.

“It’s been a while.”

“You’re working with them?” Jemma asked, taking over the talking. It was for the best. Fitz knew that in his current state he was unlikely to manage many coherent sentences.

“I could ask the same about you.”

“I went to the academy to look for you, but you weren’t there.” During Fitz coma Jemma knew she needed to do something to keep busy and having spoken to Agent Weaver briefly as S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, Jemma felt a responsibility to look for her. “We didn’t even know if you were alive.”

“If not for Agent Calderon, I wouldn’t be. He co-opted a squadron of Quinjets to come to the Academy. He saved us.” Jemma looked over at Fitz, she hadn’t had those resources and she had been trying her best to be near Fitz. He briefly caught her eye before Weaver continued, “if it weren’t for him, we would have lost even more young, talented minds that day.”

“Then why are you...” Fitz started but started to struggle.

“Why are you betraying S.H.I.E.L.D?” Jemma finished for him, and even under the horrific circumstances, it felt good to hear Jemma finish his sentences again.

“Phil Coulson has no right to call this SHIELD.” Jemma looked away in disgust. She couldn’t believe the words coming out of a woman she had once respected. “obviously we have a lot to discuss but right now, I need your help, Jemma. Agent Mackenzie’s injures have stabilised but I need you to take a look, see if we missed anything. There’s no one who’s opinion I value more and we could really use your expertise.”

Though Jemma knew she was being manipulated, she did want to check on Mack. She had heard how he protected Fitz, which didn’t excuse his actions but he deserved good medical care. Jemma turned her head to look at Fitz, silently asking if he was okay for her to go, he gave her a nod in return.

As she got up to see Mack, Jemma stopped and looked at Agent Weaver, “do you know where Alba is? She’s Fitz’s dog.”

“She’s fine but we’ve elected to keep all unknown variables separated,” Agent Weaver informed them.

“She’s a service dog, not an alien. I need her back,” Fitz said from his position on the floor.

“That’s being assessed.” With that she turned away, leading Jemma away from Fitz and towards Mack.

That did not bode well. What were they assessing? Whether or not Alba was an alien? Or whether Fitz needed her? Right now he’d feel a lot more comfortable with her at his side. He’d taken a knock to the head and would feel safer if he had Alba by his side. Technically what they were doing was against the law but SHIELD was labelled as a terrorist organisation so some breaches in ADA law wasn’t really that important. He sat there, his eyes downcast, focused on his trembling hands. He was scared, Skye was off god knows where so hopefully she was safe but his team was being torn apart. He hadn’t seen Coulson or May so he hoped they were safe but there was nothing else really to do. 

Fitz suddenly started to feel very tired, he looked up from his hands, In search of a clock, and the world seemed to spin. He moved one hand to the floor to try and keep himself upright. He hadn’t felt these warning signs in a while but he knew what was coming. 

“Jemma!” He cried out before it all went black.

* * *

Jemma has been assessing Mack’s injuries, unwilling to look him in the eye she keeps herself focused on the task at hand. It was tense and all she really wanted was to be beside Fitz. Though they had had their disagreements, with everything falling apart she just wanted to be close to her best friend. Together they could find a solution, they always did.

As she was finishing up tending to Mack she heard a faint cry of, ‘Jemma!’ She looked out at where Fitz had been sitting and saw he was convulsing very violently. She ran out of the room and knelt by Fitz. She rolled him onto his side and then went to turn and grab the stopwatch from Alba...

She wasn’t there, and she didn’t have a watch on. 

“Someone start timing, now!” Jemma shouted, putting herself into a position to support his head, he was shaking more erratically than normal and she knew he could need help to keep him safe. “I need help, someone needs to hold onto his arms and torso. I also need an AED injection, there should be one in the lab. If not find Alba and get her here.”

Everyone looked dumbly at her, not expecting a seemly mild-mannered English doctor to be yelling orders. When no one moved she looked up sharply, “now! Unless your intent is to kill him.”

That got people moving, someone ran off, hopefully, to get the meds and another person knelt by her, holding Fitz by the arms gently. She didn’t recognise this person but they clearly knew what they were being so she wasn’t too worried. 

“How long?” Jemma called out.

“Almost a minute,” an unfamiliar voice responded, it wasn’t too serious yet but she wanted to get this under control quickly. A few moments later Mack knelt down and handed her the needle. 

“Okay, someone hold his head, Mack I need you to hold down his thigh as best you can.” Jemma has orders while moving, hoping they would be followed. She didn’t have time to focus on anything else. Quickly she pulled down his jeans enough to expose his thigh, Mack grabbed a hold of his leg and Jemma carefully inserted the needle into the muscle in his thigh and depressed the pump. 

She sat back, the stress of the day catching up with her, and watched as the seizure slowed to a stop and Fitz lay eerily still. 

“Time.” She called out again.

“Three and a half minutes.”

She blew out a breath and knelt again by Fitz side. She shooed everyone away and got him into a more comfortable position. She recovered his leg and sat back against the table, pulling an unconscious Fitz to rest against her. Jemma lay her head against the table behind her and closed her eyes to prevent the tears from falling. She hadn’t seen him that bad since he woke up from the coma.

“Is he going to be okay?” Agent Weaver asked, having witnessed the whole thing.

“Hopefully, though getting caught in an explosion and being exposed to dendrotoxin probably didn’t help. You shouldn’t have kept him separate from Alba either. She was trained to spot these seizures and her vest is equipped to deal with them,” Jemma ranted, upset at what she had to witness.

Agent Weaver nodded and walked off, knowing there was nothing she could say to pacify the young woman.

“You um- y- you really sho- no told her,” Fitz said, opening his eyes, clearly having been listening to Jemma. He like when her passion was pointed at the right people. Awkwardly he sat up and leaned back against the table, he moved his head off of Jemma for a moment but placed it back on her shoulder, exhaustion from the day wearing heavily on him.

“They shouldn’t have kept Alba away from you and I should have remembered that the dendrotoxin could cause seizures in some cases.” Jemma lay her head on his and put her hand over his.

“It’s not your fault.” He took her hand in his and stroked her thumb gently.

“We’ve got to fix this.”

“We will.”

**Author's Note:**

> All feedback is appreciated!!
> 
> Comment any situation you’d like me to put these two in.
> 
> Next time: Fitz on the run with Alba


End file.
